PART II.

The Inspector of Mental Hospitals and Assistant Inspectors of Mental Hospitals.

12. —(1) There shall be an inspector of mental institutions for the purposes of this Act and such inspector shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the Inspector of Mental Hospitals.

(2) The Minister shall from time to time appoint a registered medical practitioner to be the Inspector of Mental Hospitals.

(3) Where any person held, immediately before the commencement of this Part of this Act, the office of inspector of lunatics under the law then in force, such person shall be deemed to have been appointed by the Minister immediately upon the commencement of this Part of this Act to be the Inspector of Mental Hospitals.

(4) The Minister may appoint any of his medical inspectors to act as substitute for the Inspector of Mental Hospitals during any particular period or for any particular purpose and, during that period or for that purpose (as the case may be), the person so appointed shall be regarded as being the Inspector of Mental Hospitals and every reference in this Act to the Inspector of Mental Hospitals shall be construed accordingly.

13. —(1) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may from time to time appoint such and so many registered medical practitioners to be assistant inspectors of mental institutions for the purposes of this Act (in this Act referred to as assistant inspectors of mental hospitals) as he thinks proper.

(2) The Inspector of Mental Hospitals may act by any assistant inspector of mental hospitals, and accordingly an assistant inspector of mental hospitals shall have all the powers for the time being conferred by law on the Inspector of Mental Hospitals, and any reference in any enactment (including this Act) to the Inspector of Mental Hospitals shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be construed as including a reference to any assistant inspector of mental hospitals.